


It Only Takes 1 Second

by Toaverse



Category: Onward (2020)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Crying, Death, Gen, Gun Violence, Heavy Angst, Manslaughter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:34:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24489070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toaverse/pseuds/Toaverse
Summary: When you have a firearm in your possession, you have to realize that it only takes 1 second to take someone’s life away.Barley’s former high school friends don’t realize this, as they shoot around at abandoned houses out of bordem.But there accidentally falls a victim. That victim being the youngest Lightfoot...
Comments: 8
Kudos: 30





	It Only Takes 1 Second

**Author's Note:**

> First off, this fic has been inspired by something that actually happend in (what I assume) America. But unlike in this fic, the victim that got accidentally shot only got hit in the arm, and survived. So I mean absolutely no disrespect to this what so ever.
> 
> Secondly, happy late birthday, Onward teaser! :D
> 
> Thirdly, the most times I’ve written swear words in one fic :0
> 
> Oh, and I advise to grab your tissues, ‘cause this one is about to get messy...
> 
> Enjoy!

“Oh come on, Barley. Hanging around wouldn’t be fun without you! Besides, reconnecting with me and the boys is always possible.”

“For the last time, no! I’m not gonna be a part of whatever dump idea you guys have next!” Barley shouts, having enough of his (former) high school friends trying to pull him taking part of a ‘great’ idea or plan that they had. “Don’t ask me again.” And the elf hung up.

Barley leans back against the wall, letting out a little sigh of frustration.

“Who was that?” Ian asks, who was casually reading one of his history books when the phone call took place. “Was it Rydel again?”

The older elf looks at his little brother, his frustration calming down.

“Yeah, he asked me if I wanted to hang out with him and the others for the hundredth time.” Barley explains.

“But there’s nothing wrong with that, right?” The 16 year old said.

“Ian, 9 out of 10 times they get either drunk and don’t know what they’re doing, or get arrested over by police, or both.” Barley says, leaving out some of the more illegal stuff these guys once did.

“Oh...” the younger elf let out, not really knowing what to say. “Well, I guess it’s good that you don’t see them anymore?”

“You can say that.” Barley goes to sit next to his little brother on the couch. “But seriously, don’t have people like that as your friends.”

Ian nods, knowing what his brother means. “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Good to hear!” The cheerful side of the older Lightfoot has returned, laying a hand on the younger’s shoulder. “Now, tell me which part of history you’ve been reading!”

•+•

“He said no again, did he?”

“He said no again.” Kydel answers his cyclops friend, with a frustrating tone. “Guess that gap year changed him.”

“Maybe that already happend in high school when we-“ but the orc of the group cut himself off, seeing Kydel’s threatening expression.

“But we will make this night worth it. Right, boys?” The cyclops says, trying to get the mood back in. It works, as the elf and orc nod in agreement.

•+•

Fast forward a few hours, and the trio already got bored.

Despite hanging around empty places, there isn’t really much to do in the middle of the night. They are hanging out near the school gates when Kydel comes up with an idea.

“Hey, Meol, you once said your father has a gun, right?”

The orc looks at the elf, confused yet curious what he has in mind.

“Uh, yeah. He still has it to this night.” Meol answers honestly. “Why?”

“There are some abandoned houses out there in this town.” Kydel smirks, thinking of his “cool” idea. “Let’s decorate them a little.”

Both cyclops and orc instantly gets the exact idea Kydel is referring to. The elf already walks to the car, really wanting to go through with it.

“You drive, Meol!” Kydel says before getting in the car.

“But-“ Meol wants to protest against the idea, but is cut off by his cyclops friend, who drags him by the arm to the car.

•+•

It really didn’t took that long for them to steal the weapon. I mean, that thing lay in the shed that stands in the backyard.

While Meol was on watch, Kydel and Eugano (the cyclops) stole the gun. And once they had that thing in their hands, the party could start.

Meol drives, as Kydel shoots at abandoned houses when they see one, Eugano cheering the elf on as he did.

“This is quite a awesome idea of you!” Eugano days after they shot up some other empty house.

“Don’t I always?” The elf brags.

They eventually see a mushroom house with what looks like a red roof that looks pretty abandoned to them. Well, as far as they can see.

Eugano sees only one window up on the second floor of the house, and decides to challenge his friend.

“Hey, can you shoot through that tiny window over there?”

Without even hesitation, Kydel aims the gun at the window, and pulls the trigger. The bullet went through the window, barely hitting the lower edge. It leaves a hole in the window, as well as the curtains of the room.

Kydel stands proud with the weapon in his hands, having proven his friend wrong once again. He wants to shoot at a different window again, when Meol hears sirens wailing.

“Uhm...guys...the police is somewhere there...”

“Then drive away from them, you dumbass!” The elf yells at the orc, clearly not wanting to be arrested again.

Meol does immediately what he’s told without question, but accidentally drives the wrong way. Therefore, police caught them within a minute.

Kydel looks at the orc with fury in his eyes, letting his index finger pass his throat as a certain gesture.

“Get out of the car with your hands in the air!” One cop calls out to the three boys.

Having little to no choice, the three creatures got out of the car and do as they’re told.

•+•

The sound of sirens wailing so close to your house was the thing that woke Barley up from his sleep.

He normally wouldn’t, and the sirens would just pass by, but now those sounds wail quite close to them for a while.

And it starts to become irritating.

‘Just make it stop!’ Barley thought.

A few minutes pass before the doorbell rang. Instant nervousness and fear ran through Barley’s mind and body as he hears the sound, guessing that it may be the police.

‘What the heck happend?’ Is the question on the Lightfoot’s mind. He knows that the police rarely knock on your door in the middle of the night, unless something REALLY bad has happend. But being already awake, Barley decides to just answer the door.

He gets out of bed, and makes his way to the front door. When seeing the door, Barley can vaguely see a light switch from blue to red through the curtains, hinting that it is in fact the police.

The elf unlocks and opens the door, and is met with his guesses being right. Officer Specter appears to be standing on the doorstep, but Barley is too focused on the fact that there are multiple police cars through out the background. Almost as if someone has been murdered.

“What happend?” The young elf can only ask, his tone mixed with confusion and tiredness.

“It might be better if we inform you about it tomorrow, since it is not really the best time for that.” Specter explains, regering to it being midnight right now. The elf nods, understanding the cyclops’ reason. “Is Colt here?”

“Yes, he’s here.” Barley answers. “Should I call them downstairs, or-“

“That won’t be needed, Barley.” Colt says, walking downstairs along with Laurel, also having heard the sirens from outside. Once the centaur and female elf are downstairs, questions are asked. “Specter, what happend?”

“Three teenagers shot at some abandoned houses with a firearm.”

Barley can feel a ‘click’ in his head as he hears this, immediately thinking back to the phone call he had with Kydel in the evening.

“Just a question, but do those three happen to be a elf, a cyclops, and an orc?” Barley asks out of curiosity.

“Yes, they are.” Specter answers, sounding kinda surprised but in her casual tone. “You know them?”

“Unfortunately...” Barley says quietly, yet loud enough to be heard. “They where former “friends” of mine when we where in high school.“

Specter takes a mental note of that, thinking that that might come in handy for in the future.

“Thank you, Barley. We will take it from here.” Colt says to his stepson, laying a thankful hand on his shoulder before going outside.

It then stays silent in the house for 10 or so seconds, both mother and son seeing the blue-red lights flicker and hearing cops talk outside.

A thought then occurred Barley; Ian hadn’t come downstairs from loudly hearing the sirens. Knowing that his little brother isn’t that much of a heavy sleeper, curiosity took the best of the older brother. Has Ian indeed slept through it? Has he woken up but didn’t bother to go downstairs?

“Mom, is it okey if I check up on Ian?”

“As long as you don’t wake him up.” Laurel answers.

Barley gives his mother a nod, saying that he won’t disturb his brother’s sleep without words, before quietly going upstairs.

all Barley can hear is the sound of the creaking stairs by each step he takes, the voices outside slowly fading in the background. The elf eventually got off of the stairs, having reached the second floor of the house. He looks and walks to his younger brother’s bedroom door, which is of cours closed, and slightly opens it quietly to see if Ian’s still in dreamland or not.

It makes Barley smile seeing his baby brother sleep peacefully. Ian lays on his left side, back faced to the door.

But something feels...off.

The older brother can feel his gut telling him exactly that. He opens the door a bit further, and looking at Ian’s sleeping form for a few seconds, Barley notices that the younger’s chest isn’t rising and falling. Not even in the slightest.

‘Wake him up!’ and ‘something might be wrong!’ are the things the 19 year old can feel his gut telling him. But it might as well be the darkness that makes it difficult to see.

But regardless, Barley listens to his gut. He slowly and quietly went to his younger brother’s bed, trying to carefully wake him up.

“Hey, are you up?” Barley asks quietly, shaking Ian a little bit, but he gets no answer. “Ian?” The older brother tries for a second time, shaking the younger a little harder, but he got no answer yet again.

Worry sets in the 19 year old’s mind, as he still got no answer what so ever. Having enough, he quikly turns the lights of the room on so he can see everything better, but when he turns around to go to Ian’s bedside again, the curtains caught his attention.

There’s a small, circle shaped hole in the cloth of the curtains, almost exactly at Ian’s bed hight.

Barley’s gut, which begins to feel worse by worry, mentally screams at him to turn Ian around. He then picks his little brother up a little, carefully turning him to lay on his right side, but almost dropped him when Barley sees the younger’s face.

The left side of Ian’s face is covered in his own blood, the red liquid still leaking out of a circle shaped hole in his forehead.

Barley jumps out of fright as he sees the sight, the conversation with Specter instantly replaying in his mind. He looks at the curtains real quick, then back at his younger brother, and then it clicks.

‘They shot him...’ the thought crashes down in the 20 year old’s mind. ‘theyshothim theyshothimtheyshothimtheyshothimthey-‘

Out of instinct, Barley scoops Ian up in his arms, and runs downstairs where his mother is, desperately hoping that there’s a chance that his baby brother can still survive. His heart feeling like it’s in his throat, as well as the horrible sound of ringing in his ears.

“Mom!” The young adult panically yells as he reaches the bottom of the stairs, his mother in sight. “Please call an ambulance!”

For a second, Laurel looks at her oldest with confusion, but when her eyes fall to the sight of her youngest, she immediately gets the whole message, looking horrified.

“G-get him outside...” She manages to choke out, to which Barley obeyed within a second. Laurel soon follows.

Colt and some officers are still outside, talking and fact checking the situation that those three boys caused. The centaur then sees out the corner of his eye Laurel running towards him, all panicked and stressed, but was still a few meters away. He therefor turns his attention to her.

“Laurel, what ha-“ but the centaur is cut off by his girlfriend.

“Ian has been shot...”

Colt feels his heart sink at that sentence, almost not believing it.

“Where.” He asks, yet his tone sounding demanding with a touch of worry.

“F-forehead...” Laurel chokes out, barely holding back tears.

‘Shit...’ Colt mentally swears. He looks around in the background, trying to find his youngest stepson, assuming he’s brought outside. He eventually spots Barley holding his little brother close to his chest, trying desperately to hug the littlest bit of life out of him.

Adrenalin couldn’t kick in fast enough, as Colt runs to the scene as fast as he can. When he gets there and sees the younger brother’s state, the centaur can feel his heart jump right from the bodem up in his throat.

“Have you checked for a puls?” Colt asks his oldest stepson, to which he shakes his head as a “no”. The centaur kneels down and put a hand on Ian’s neck multiple times on different spots, trying to find some kind of heartbeat, any kind of heartbeat.

But there’s no puls, not even the smallest.

Feeling a bunch of eyes on them, Colt looks around him to see that most civilians of the street are looking at them, some stand outside, some look out the window.

“Does anyone know how to preform CPR?” The centaur asks, more specifically to the civilians, out of a desperate attempt to still save the boy’s life. “Anyone...?”

But no one comes forward.

It feels as if time completely freezes in the Lightfoot family’s mind, looking at the lifeless body of their youngest member. Colt looks at Laurel, absolutely defeated and not knowing what else to do. It’s enough for Laurel to get that it’s all over.

She drops to her knees, and holds her son close to her. Feelings of devastation and anger build up in her, and she cries them all out.

Barley, who already stood up on his feet, watches the heartbreaking scene play out. He goes to sit on the grass, looking at the police cars that are parked on their street, trying to process it all as he hears his mother wep.

That being, until the elf hears a familiar voice call out his name.

“Barley!” It is Shrub, who was most likely also woken up by police showing up. “Boy, there is a whole lot of police over here. Did Kydel’s group pull some stunt again?”

It was just a question his best friend asked, but knowing the full context, it hit Barley square in the heart, and tears start to burn in his eyes.

“Yes...” the elf chokes out.

Hearing his friend’s sad tone got the troll worried if something serious has just happend, but hearing the cries of Barley’s mother, and seeing the sight of her holding Ian, almost says enough.

But it is enough to get the message across.

“Those assholes...” Shrub quietly says, sitting besides his crying friend.

“He’s dead...” Barley wimpers. It feels weird saying the truth and reality out loud, but it hits so hard at the same time. “Ian’s dead ‘cause of them...”

Maybe he should’ve known those three would pull something like this, and never even thought of the worst happening. If only Barley had known that this would happen, then he would make damn sure that Ian doesn’t sleep in his own room for the next week.

“Hey, look at me.” Shrub says in a comforting tone, to which Barley slightly listens. “You know we can destroy them in court, right? My dad is a lawyer, he can dig up some dirt about them that can get them locked up for a few years.”

The slight hope of justice makes the elf feel a little bit better, just a little bit. However, the fact that Barley can never get his baby brother back sets in his mind, and he breaks.

He cries of of that reality, as Shrub puts a hand his friend’a shoulder for comfort, looking at the chaos in front of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Ó.Ò


End file.
